So Age Is A Problem For Everyone But Pres. Joe Biden?

The Democratic Party and its media advocates have hectored aging public officials to step down in the past but we are now assured that Biden's advanced age is no problem.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

First it was U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, who was unceremoniously bounced from her role as ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2021 because she forgot someone’s name.

The NYT floated ominous stories about Feinstein, then 88, based on comments from people who refused to be identified.

Then it was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, who was appointed by former Democratic Pres. Bill Clinton in 1994.

A group run by a former press official for Clinton’s wife, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, sponsored a billboard truck to circle the Court with a banner reading: “Breyer, Retire…. It’s time for a Black woman Supreme Court justice.” Breyer dutifully retired last summer and, of course, was immediately replaced by a black woman.

President Biden celebrated his 80th birthday on Sunday.

There has been rumbling on both sides of the aisle about Biden’s ability to serve but the NYT glossed over Biden’s frequent memory lapses, inability to give coherent answers to simple questions posed by friendly handpicked journalists, and his appearance of being lost at sea when he must exit a stage.

Instead, NYT author Sheryl Gay Stolberg tells us that Biden may be among that rare group of “super-agers” who maintain their mental and physical functioning longer than the average person their age.

A Second Term?

Biden says he is going to run for a second term, at the end of which he would be 86.

No problem, says Stolberg. “[E]xperts in geriatrics say that people in their 80s who are active, engaged and have a sense of purpose can remain productive and healthy” and their “wisdom and experience are important factors to consider,” she writes.

It is hard to reconcile the NYT’s boosterism of Biden compared to the NYT denigrating treatment of Feinstein.

And it is even harder when one looks at how the media questioned GOP Pres. Donald Trump’s cognitive health.

The Atlantic featured a story by James Hamblin entitled: “Is Something Neurologically Wrong With Donald Trump?” Hamblin said the way Trump drank from a small Fiji bottle raised questions about his ability to serve as the leader of the free world. Hambling wrote that after age 40 “the brain decreases in volume by about 5 percent every decade… some 8.8 percent of Americans older than 65 now have dementia.”

Bottom line: If the NYT wants Biden to run, because he seems to be intent on doing so and the NYT can’t stop him, then Biden’s just fine. If the left-wing Atlantic Magazine doesn’t like Trump, then he’s got dementia.

Dr. Dan Blazer, professor emeritus and psychiatric epidemiologist at Duke University School of Medicine, tells us that “slippage of memory is something that is usual, but it is not a real deficit.”

There’s no reason to panic, according to the NYT.

“While experts are reluctant to diagnose Mr. Biden from afar — and there is no way to predict the future — those who have reviewed the available White House medical records said that so far, he appears to be aging in a healthy way.”

The experts quoted by the NYT are correct that chronological age does not equate with biological age. A huge wealth of research shows that everyone ages differently. Many vigorous 80-year-olds are indeed sharp as tack. Is Biden? The NYT certainly wants you to think so.